{{short description|American actress}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
[[File:Portrait of Mrs. James W. Wallack LACMA M.85.33.jpg|thumb|300px|right|Susan Johnstone by Henry Inman in about 1828]]
'''Susan Johnstone''', also known as Mrs. James William Wallack (29 November 1792<ref>[https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=9841&h=40753201&ssrc=pt&tid=8956181&pid=25330340309 Georgiana Susanna Johnson in the England, Select Births and Christenings, 1538-1975 - Ancestry.com {{subscription required}}]</ref> – 25 December 1850) was an English-American actress of the 19th-century.
She was born as '''Georgiana Susannah Johnstone''' in Covent Garden in London in 1792,<ref name=Banns/> the only daughter of the actor, singer and comedian John Henry Johnstone (1749-1828), known as 'Irish' Johnstone with his second wife Ann Bolton (1771-1810), the daughter of a wine merchant, with whom he eloped.<ref name="DNB">{{cite DNB|wstitle=Johnstone, John Henry|volume=30}}</ref><ref>{{cite ODNB|id=14969|title=Johnstone, John Henry|first=K. D.|last=Reynolds}}</ref> On the day of her baptism on 6 March 1793 Richard Barry, 7th Earl of Barrymore was to have been her sponsor but he was killed in a shooting accident the same day.<ref>Philip H. Highfill, Kalman A. Burnim, and Edward A. Langhans, [https://books.google.com/books?id=mjeImcc9rGwC&pg=PA213 ''A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers and Other Stage Personnel in London, 1660-1800''], Southern Illinois University Press (1982) - Google Books pg. 213</ref> On going on the stage herself she enjoyed a successful career and excelled in comic roles. In 1817 she married the actor and theatrical producer James William Wallack at Lambeth in 1818,<ref name=Banns>[https://www.ancestry.co.uk/interactive/1623/31280_195089-00034/5646495?backurl=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/family-tree/person/tree/8956181/person/25330340309/facts/citation/112624081671/edit/record London, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1932 for Georgiana Susannah Johnstone: Lambeth, St Mary, Lambeth, 1818-1822 - Ancestry.com {{subscription required}}]</ref> appearing with him in New York and on tour.<ref>Nan Mullenneaux, [https://books.google.com/books?id=99N5DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA336 ''Staging Family: Domestic Deceptions of Mid-Nineteenth-Century American Actresses''], University of Nebraska Press (2018) - Google Books pg. 336</ref> The couple appeared in the United States frequently thereafter. They had four sons: John Johnstone Wallack, known as Lester Wallack, who also became an actor;<ref name=LACMA/><ref>{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Wallack, James William |volume=28 |page=279}}</ref> (1820–1888); James Price Wallack (1821–1846); Captain Henry Jobling Wallack (1823–1900), and Charles Saville Wallack (1826–1855). [[File:Lester Wallack und James Wallack - Schauspieler.jpg|thumb|left|Johnstone's son Lester Wallack (left) and husband James William Wallack. The boy is Charles E. Wallack, Lester's son and Johnstone's grandson. Photo by Rockwood]] Her portrait was painted several times including by Henry Inman in about 1828, one of a small series he painted of theatrical figures. Another by Thomas Sully entitled 'Portrait of Mrs. Wallack' was exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1819.<ref name=LACMA>[https://collections.lacma.org/node/250204 Portrait of Mrs. James W. Wallack by Henry Inman (United States, New York, Utica, 1801-1846) - Los Angeles County Museum of Art]</ref>
Susan Johnstone Wallack died suddenly in St. Giles in London in 1850.
==References== {{reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnstone, Susan}} Category:1792 births Category:1850 deaths Category:Actors from the City of Westminster Category:Actors from the London Borough of Camden Category:19th-century English actresses Category:19th-century American actresses
Category:People from Covent Garden Category:British emigrants to the United States